How to beef up bouncy chipboard floors (withot replacing)?

[AL_n]

Hi All,

Some of the upstairs chipboard floors in my house are annoyingly soft underfoot. The reason is that the chipboard sections have been sawn in order to lift them and install central heating pipework underneath. Obviously, this completely negates the original stiffness of the floor, produced by the interlocking nature of the boards.

I really do not want to replace all the chipboard if I can help it. I'm looking for other ways to restore stiffness to the floor, such as, say, laying something over the top of the chipboard. Would laminate flooring do this?

Any suggestions, please?

Many thanks,

Al

[The Natural Philosopher]

An injection of PVA glue works wonders..

Or if you are steenking reech, superglue!

Or rout across the strips and screw glue strengthening bits on

I wouldn't think laminate would cure, only reduce, the effect

[Lee]

BTDTGTT If the floor is already spongy, laminate is the last thing you'd want to put down ;) I guess there may be good reasons for not wanting to replace the chipboard, but it's probably the most practical option. Overlaying with ply screwed through the chipboard into the joists may work, if you don't mind the raised floor level.

[Martin Bonner]

I don't think the interlocking nature actually matters all that much.

If the remaining pieces are too small, that will matter.

If the cuts have not been done over a joist that will be a problem.

If the cuts haven't been done over a joist, lift those sections and screw battens to the underside of the remaining boards, then re-lay the sections.

Identify the joists, and screw the chipboard to every joist it crosses

- this will make a huge difference.

Just laying something on top won't help (unless it's very - >25mm - thick).

Laying 10mm ply over the chipboard, and then screwing the ply to the chip (and into the joists) would help quite a lot - but you'd need to put a floor above the ply.

[JTM]

We had an extension built and the floor *was* chipboard and very firm it was too.

The finish was a laminate which now feels (and sounds) spongy

John

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Lift the offending ones and drill and screw re-enforcing over the joins underneath? Plywood would probably be best. Or plain wood battening large enough for a screw to grip.

No - you'll end up with bouncy floors which squeak too.

[meow2222]

any one of

replace damaged boards screw supporting bits to joists under damage screw stiffening loadsharing bits to chip underside overlay the lot with 3/4" sheet material screwed down all round the damage

NT

[no_spam]

Butt joints that are not over a joist should have been reinforced with a doubler or by cutting a groove and fitting a loose tongue (a biscuit jointer does this easily). For joints on a joist I usually fix a batten to the side of the joist to give more support area and somewhere to screw into.

[The Medway Handyman]

Fill the void under the floor with the bodies of dead plumbers.

Plumbers are genetically incapable of re fixing floor boards.

Laminate is a no no.

Prise up each piece, check what is where underneath, screw battens into joists/under edges as necessary, screw down boards with 2" + screws.

[Andrew Mawson]

Prise up each piece, ceremoniously cremate it with it's like, and replace with suitable flooring. Chipboard is devil's spawn :)

Andrew

[meow2222]

Bits of spawn all glued together. With spawn. But is is cheap and fast.

NT

[DerbyBorn]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

As an aside, the best thing the builder of my house did was he pencilled lines on the floor to show the location of pipes and cables. Over time when I replace a carpet I paint the lines to make them clearer.

[JTM]

Read this advice on here years ago and actually remembered to do it when I boarded a couple of lofts!

John